As a young man, Minhao Chen G鈥�12 began to notice that something wasn鈥檛 right. One by one,聽family friends in Shanghai were being diagnosed with cancer. By the time he had completed his聽undergraduate degree in China, five people he knew had lost their lives to the disease and his聽grandfather had survived two separate diagnoses.
Minhao Chen
Chen persevered and continued his education, his sights set on becoming a professional bridge聽engineer. He traveled to 麻豆频道and enrolled in the civil engineering master鈥檚 program in the , but he聽wasn鈥檛 there long before the disease that had haunted him came calling once again鈥攖his time,聽closer to home than ever before.
鈥淚 received word that my mother had been diagnosed and I was devastated. I decided I needed to聽know why this was happening,鈥� says Chen.
Chen began to research the cause of the sinister illness that seemed insistent on upending his life.聽In conversations with doctors, Chen learned that there is a high correlation between cancer and聽the food people eat. As he continued to research the disease, his mind kept returning to the聽disturbing statistic that 30-35 percent of cancer-related deaths can be linked to a person鈥檚 diet.
Focused like a laser, he began to commit every waking hour outside of his coursework to聽learning everything he could about food and its production. He learned about the overuse of聽fertilizer, herbicides, antibiotics and hormones and how they affect human health. He took a聽course in nutrition from and became an expert in poor eating聽habits like overeating, as well as consuming too much salt, fat and sugar, and not enough聽vegetables. He also learned an unfortunate fact about most meals鈥攖he lower the cost, the lower聽the quality.
It was during this time that he found inspiration in an unlikely source鈥攖he fast-casual Chinese聽restaurant chain Panda Express.
鈥淚 enjoyed their food and noticed that they served healthy options. I was amazed that their meals聽cost just seven or eight dollars. A comparable meal would cost $25 in China, simply because of聽inefficient food production.鈥� recalls Chen. 鈥淚 found out that Panda Express mass produces their聽food to meet a certain standard, freezes it and then ships it to stores around the country where it聽is reheated and served. By doing this, they can control the quality across all of their locations and聽keep the cost down.鈥�
Chen decided to make it his personal mission to find a way to leverage his engineering聽knowledge and bring improved food production systems to China to widely distribute safe,聽healthy, affordable food.
This decision inspired a coast-to-coast pilgrimage across the United States to learn about the food聽production system from farm to fork. He visited every food-related location that was open to him聽from New York to Seattle and back. He took what he learned, and after eight years in bridge聽engineering, made a decision to enter the food industry.
鈥淚n bridge engineering, we push all of the materials, physics and technology to the limit. I聽challenged myself to apply this same way of thinking to food.鈥�
The result of Chen鈥檚 obsession with food production and years of research is Shi Quan She Mei聽Co. Ltd.鈥攁 state-of- the-art central kitchen factory in China that produces traditional Chinese food.
鈥淭here are more than one billion people in China that need low-cost, high-quality food. The way聽to achieve that is to maximize the food production in our centralized kitchen. We ensure healthy,聽safe and tasty food and have greatly lowered the meal cost that people are accustomed to.鈥�
Shi Quan She Mei is a state-of-the-art central kitchen factory in China designed to widely distribute safe, healthy, and affordable traditional Chinese food.
Currently, Shi Quan She Mei鈥檚 main consumers are schoolchildren. The dishes are mostly the聽same, but high-quality raw materials such as Iberico pork, fish and rice are used in place of聽lower-quality foods. Shi Quan She Mei also employs a research and development team of chefs聽to create their recipes to make sure the food tastes good.
鈥淵ou have to make the food delicious. That鈥檚 another big challenge for us.鈥�
When operating at maximum capacity, Chen鈥檚 food production factory can feed 200,000 people聽a day and is 400 percent more efficient than central kitchens of similar size.
Chen also seized an opportunity to use Shi Quan She Mei as a way to educate people about聽healthy eating. In addition to being an engineering marvel, the factory is also a tourist attraction聽for schoolchildren. There is an entire floor devoted to teaching kids about healthy eating in an聽interactive and entertaining way. In the process, parents learn how the factory works and Chen is聽able to promote affinity for his brand.
Chen hopes to one day see correlations between his work and decreased instances of cancer in聽Shanghai and he is confident that his efforts will improve the health of his fellow citizens. He聽credits his engineering education with allowing him to have such an impact on a cause that he聽holds so near to his heart and is confident that he has found his calling.
鈥淚 have a strong passion for engineering. That鈥檚 why I chose to be a bridge engineer.聽But I also聽have a great passion to make changes in the world. I used to think that bridge engineering was聽the best way I could improve people鈥檚 lives, but eventually I decided that if we do not have聽clean, healthy food, what鈥檚 the use of a bridge or a building?鈥�
